Stony Brook

In terms of music, I was one very lucky teenager. If I liked a musician or a band, I would book them to play my college, Stony Brook.

Me and KeishaTwo years ago I met Nickeisha Gaynor at an event for me at Stony Brook University. She introduced me at the ceremony. At the time she was writing a paper on Mass Incarceration regarding gangs and police brutality. She reminded me about all the athletes lately protesting against police brutality. She worries that her generation, is not as active in learning about the politics of our time.

When I was at Stony Brook, I was the head of the Student Activities Board for several years. I booked Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, The Doors, the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, Muddy Waters, The Who, The Temptations, Joni Mitchell, Ravi Shankar, Jackson Browne, Pink Floyd, The Fugs, The Byrds, Tim Buckley... to play there. I would have booked Stephanie Kelton for sure. But she was in kindergarten then.

And a delightful dining companion

A couple of days ago New York’s corrupt governor, Andrew Cuomo, was being derided for vetoing a bill to make sure indigent suspects had legal representation.

That's me, dead center with the sign about Brooklyn. I was 16. (Hillary was campaigning for Barry Goldwater that day)I read Malia Obama was taking a year off-- a gap year-- between high school and Harvard. What a great idea! I wish we had gap years when I was a kid!

This was a pretty special week for me. My doctor gave me permission to fly for the first time since my stem cell transplant left me without an immune system. I've spent the last 6 months gets immunized for everything from whooping cough and diptheria to polio and dozens of strains of influenza. But she told me I can start going to concerts again and even go on planes-- crowded places where germs are known to lurk.

Saturday night, Julian Bond, one of my personal heroes, passed away. I didn't realize he was 75; I always assumed he was my age, maybe a year or two older. I first met him in 1966, and I'm going to tell you about that in a minute. In more recent years we've both been on the board of People for the American Way, where he has continued to inspire me. He's inspired a lot of people.

The other day I visited my old campus-- Stony Brook-- for the first time in exactly 45 years. I was there to begin a relationship with a program that assists high school kids from financially strapped backgrounds envision themselves going to college and the succeeding in college. Great program! It's called EOP/AIM-- Educational Opportunity Program/Advancement on Individual Merit.

Not my limo driver-- but he might as well have beenWhen I was in college I was probably best known for 3 things-- all intimately tied together back in the '60s, if not now: progressive politics, drugs and rock'n'roll. The first concert I ever booked, as freshman class president, was the Freshman Dance. The campus squares were eager to put on a suit and tie, ask their gals on a date, give them a corsage and do a slow dance.